bands

 

Death By Stereo

contact · news · reviews · specials · shows · modify this band

In the beginning of 1998 five friends started jamming in a garage. Ian Fowles, Jarrod Alexander, Efrem Schulz, Paul and Jim Miner were the five friends, and out of the remnants of Clint, CleanX and the D-Cons (our former bands), Death By Stereo was born. We practiced in Jarrod's garage for a few months and then decided to record a demo.

We recorded five songs at For The Record Studios, where Paul worked. Out of the five songs, four of them went on to be included on the album "If Looks Could Kill, I'd Watch You Die," and the one that wasn't on the album will never see the light of day again. After we released the demo, we started to play a few shows around the Southern California area. We played our first show on March 5th, 1998 and have been putting all of our energies in to playing and recording since then.

After we had a few shows and a demo under our belt, we knew that there was no self respecting punk rock band that didn't have a release on vinyl. So we recorded three more songs, two of which were released on the "Fooled By Your Smile" 7". The third song was released later on the "Incompatible 2" compilation and also on the "No-Fi Trash" compilation on Floppy Cow Records in Switzerland. The first 7" prompted more and more shows. A few friends started to come to shows to actually see us, so we were pretty excited. Soon after the 7" was released, Ian our original guitar player decided to leave the band to go on a mission for his church, so we enlisted Keith Barney of Adamantium and Throwdown fame to take Ian's place.

The next logical thing for us was to try to get a record label to put out a record for us, so we didn't have to pay for it ourselves. The only record label we could have wanted to be on, Indecision, seemed interested, and actually agreed to put out an album for us. So we wrote a few more songs and went back to For The Record to lay down the tracks for the album. "If Looks Could Kill, I'd Watch You Die" was released May 15th, 1999 and everything looked great. We then toured over the entire US in the summer of 1999.

A few more months of playing shows around the Southern California area things got increasingly better. Around that time, in the fall of '99, Keith left the band to pursue his other bands Throwdown and Eighteen Visions, and Jarrod decided to move to Boston to pursue music full time at the Berklee School Of Music. It seemed to pose quite a problem but luck was on our side. We asked an old friend Tim Bender if he would fill in for some shows that we already had booked when Jarrod left, and he said he would do it. At the same time Eyelid was breaking up, so we asked Dan Palmer if he would also like to play in our band, and he was up to the task. After a few practices we started playing shows with the new lineup.

Somehow we seemed to spark the interest of Epitaph Records. On one of the shows we did on a winter tour with Straight Faced and Ignite, Brett from Epitaph came to see us. He said he was in to putting out a record for us, so we were really excited. We started working on writing new songs for a new album. We did a few more short tours in the winter of '99 and spring of 2000 before we went in to record. In May, of 2000 we went back to to the studio to start recording. We finished recording, and then embarked for our summer tour of 2000. Bane and Adamantium were our touring mates, which made it the most fun tour we ever had, and might ever have. After we came back from tour, we realized that we needed to remix the record. Although, it seriously delayed the release of the record, we are really happy because it came out much better.

The record finally came out in January of 2001 after an anxious wait. Soon after that, in the spring of 2001, we embarked upon our most rigorous tour yet, 10 1/2 weeks around the US and Canada. We did the bulk of the tour with Sick Of It All, BoySetsFire and the Hope Conspiracy. The dates in Canada were with our good friends AFI, as well as some new friends in Rise Against, Nicotine (from Japan)and the Planet Smashers. The tour was amazing, and even though it was quite long, it was incredibly fun. However an unfortunate byproduct of being on the road so long, we decided to part ways with our drummer Tim. We have since enlisted the drumming skills of our good friend Todd Hennig of Heckle and Seven Years War fame. We are about to leave for another US tour with Good Riddance and Kill Your Idols, and then we are off to Europe with Good Riddance shortly thereafter. We can't wait, it's going to be an opportunity of a lifetime. So that's where we are now, as of July of 2001. The saga will continue...

Contact
E-mail	Click here to e-mail Death By Stereo (please login first)
Website	http://www.deathbystereo.com

Latest news

Title (comments)	Date
Death By Stereo update (9)	23 September 2009
Death By Stereo - new album coming up (4)	27 August 2009
Death By Stereo mp3 (11)	12 May 2005
Death By Stereo finish mixing record (6)	22 January 2005
Death By Stereo: "Death For Life" (29)	6 January 2005
Death by stereo recording new album! (8)	25 August 2004
Death By Stereo postpones European tour! (18)	7 July 2004
Death By Stereo hits Europe again (9)	7 March 2004

Reviews

Death By Stereo - Death Is My Only Friend

11 November 2009 · After hearing this new Death By Stereo album, I think it’s safe to say that their music doesn’t do it for me anymore. Their previous effort, ‘Death For Life’ from 2005, was already way smoother and... »

Read full article · Comments (5)

Death By Stereo - Death For Life

15 May 2005 · 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005…right on time! Two years after their previous album “Into The Valley Of Death” Death By Stereo is back to release their latest effort “Death For Life”. Let me start this review... »

Read full article · Comments (16)

v/a - Eastpak Resistance Tour 2 DVD

10 January 2005 · I Scream Records continue the tradition of releasing a DVD of the previous Eastpak Resistance Tour prior to the new edition. This time it features eight bands, just like last time, and it sure aren’t... »

Read full article · Comments (11)

v/a - Punk-O-Rama Vol. 9

2 July 2004 · I’m sure everybody here knows the Punk-O-Rama series by now and maybe even owns one of these compilations. This edition features 25 Epitaph bands like Bad Religion, The (International) Noise... »

Read full article · Comments (9)

v/a - Punk-O-Rama 8

19 June 2003 · Numer 8 already in the series of Epitaph Samplers. What can one say about, you'll be getting songs frrom almost all the current epitaph bands. And playing this cd made me clear that epitaph has... »

Read full article · Comments (0)

Death By Stereo - Day Of The Death

8 April 2003 · I heard a lot of good news about this new DBS release and I was getting kinda curious about it. For some reason it took awhile before the promo arrived but there it was finally. I inserted the CD... »

Read full article · Comments (1)

Specials

Arnhem Hardcore Meeting II

7 May 2006 · Ramallah cancelled their appearance on the second Arnhem Hardcore Meeting and that’s the reason the festival moved from the Musis Sacrum to the Willemeen. A wise decision, because, as it should be on... »

Read full article · Comments (5)

Upcoming shows

No shows listed.

Show archive